Containers for particulate (roast or ground) coffee have many unique requirements not considered for other containers. For example, coffee particulates give off gases while being stored, and are deleteriously affected by air. Thus, coffee particulate containers must prevent the ingress of air and hence be air-tight; but such containers must also be suitably robust to withstand a build-up of pressure, or alternatively, the container must vent the built up gases before the pressure thereof damages (miss-shapes or breaks) the container.
While particulate coffee containers were previously generally made of metal formed into a cylinder with a top and a bottom (which was thus easily made robust and air-tight), new cylindrical and other plastic containers, particularly with layered walls, have now been found to be suitable for containing particulate coffee. However, where such plastic containers have sufficient size to store a desired volume of particulate coffee, typically in the range of 2-4 pounds and having diameters of about 5-7 inches, such containers have been difficult to handle. Thus, ease of use by the user of such plastic containers at home has also been a problem.
Cylindrical plastic coffee containers which are sized as discussed above have been known with pinch handles to provide for easier handling and holding. However, such pinch handles require significant friction to be generated by the thumb/fingers of the user to prevent slippage, which friction is the result of the force with which the thumb/fingers engage the pinch handle. Thus, such pinch handles are difficult for the user to grasp and then to hold with the required force for a sufficient time due to tiring of the thumb/finger muscles, so that the overall container weight which a user is able to hold is limited. In addition, such containers may be hard to hold in view of the moment exerted on the wrist of the user due to the distance to the center of gravity of the container.
For example, depicted schematically in FIGS. 1-2 is a prior art cylindrical plastic coffee container 10 of a size to contain about 2.125 pounds of coffee and having a pinch grip for lifting and holding container 10. It will be appreciated that FIG. 1 is a rear cross sectional elevation view of container 10, while FIG. 2 is a cross sectional plan view taken along section line 2-2 in FIG. 1 of a relevant portion of container 10. Generally, container 10 is cylindrical and formed from a base 12 and a surrounding generally cylindrical wall member 14 upstanding from base 12. The transition intersection of base 12 and surrounding wall member 14 is curved for strength and ease of formation. As shown, container 10 has a wide/large opening in a top 15, on which top 15 a removable lid (not shown) is retained after opening of a foil seal (not shown) adhered to top 15 during shipping, as is well known in the art. This prior art container 10 has an outside diameter of about 6.25 inches and a height of about 6.25 inches as well.
The pinch grip for cylindrical container 10 is made of two mirror image concave pinch pockets 18a and 18b formed integrally in generally cylindrical wall member 14 of container 10. It will be appreciated that pinch pockets 18a and 18b are viewed from above in FIG. 2, as indicated by section line 2-2 in FIG. 1. Each pinch pocket 18 extends generally vertically along surrounding wall member 14 with a height of about 4 inches. Each pinch pocket 18 also has a curved intersection of each inside wall 16a and 16b of respective pinch pockets 18a and 18b (i.e., “inside” relative to the opposed thumb and fingers of the hand used to grip container 10) with surrounding wall member 14, so that inside walls 16a and 16b are slightly C shaped along the height as shown best in FIG. 1. Each pinch pocket 18 also extends somewhat deeper into container 10 from surrounding wall member 14 at about a vertical center thereof by a distance B, which distance B is about 0.375 inches. It will noted that the distance B depicted in FIG. 2 is the distance from the top corner of pinch pocket 18a to the outermost portion of the C shape thereof as seen from above, consistent with the C shape as noted above at surrounding wall member 14 of inside walls 16a and 16b. This produces an overall maximum depth D1 into container 10 of about 0.75 inches. At the vertical center of each pinch pocket 18, there is a lateral minimum separation C1 of pockets 18 from each other (on the inside of container 10) of about 2.375 inches, and a lateral opening separation W1 of pockets 18 from each other where pockets 18 intersect with surrounding wall member 14 of about 3.0 inches. Typically, container 10 is blow-molded from an HDPE plastics material.